Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang got the rock star treatment this week touring Taiwan, his birth country, while here in the U.S. investors continued to treat the stock, which is the biggest proxy for artificial intelligence, as a sure thing.
The chipmaker’s market value of $3.01 trillion surpassed Apple’s by a slim margin and trailed only Microsoft, the world’s largest company. It is the third U.S. company on record to close above the $3 trillion market cap milestone, as tracked by Dow Jones Market Data Group.
Nvidia’s gyration higher comes ahead of its 10-for-1 stock split for shareholders of record as of Thursday, June 6. Nvidia shares will be distributed after the close of trading on Friday, June 7, and will begin trading post-split on Monday, June 10, according to the company.
"For the elite, transformational tech stories such as Nvidia and the AI Revolution, investors must see the forest through the trees to where this spending wave [and estimates] can head over the next three years, and we believe 60% to 70% of enterprises will ultimately head down the AI use case path as we estimate a $1 trillion of incremental AI spend over the next decade," said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives after the company’s blockbuster earnings in May.
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The stock, which closed at an all-time high of $1,224.40 on Wednesday, would value one share at $122.44, a level that is subject to change during Thursday’s session. The stock has gained more than 200% this year. Last month, the company also boosted its quarterly dividend payout 150% to $0.10 per share.
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During Huang’s visit to Taiwan, he outlined the "endless" possibilities of AI during Computex 2024 in Taipei this week, detailing a "road map for new semiconductors that will arrive on a one-year rhythm."
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Sporting his signature look, a black leather jacket, he spoke passionately about how radically different "the generative computing era" will be from the past. While much of the tech talk was high-level for laypeople, the overall message was clear: The computing world has been mostly running on ideas that are 60 years old. But after 20 years of work in collaboration with other Taiwanese tech giants such as TSMC, Nvidia and its partners have reinvented the computing wheel. No more information retrieval; instead, when you want info, it will be generated, thus being more relevant and up to date than anything that can be "found."
He also posed for selfies with fans as the local newspapers used terms like "rock star" to describe him. He also threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the game between the CTBC Brothers and Wei Chuan Dragons at Taipei Dome.
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Eryk Smith, reporting for FOX Business from Taiwan, contributed to this report.
